When a motorcycle crashes the stock metal engine covers invariably hit the ground, and can break or wear away, causing an oil spill. When excessive impact or wear is present the stock cover will either crack, with either the initial or subsequent impact, or wear right through the stock metal engine cover, when the motorcycle travels for a long duration on its side.
This leads to the engine oil spilling out on to the track or road. This causes a very hazardous oil spill for other motorcycles and other vehicles in general. In the case of other motorcycles, this invariably leads to more and potentially fatal crash scenarios.
The conventional method for protecting the stock metal covers are to attach a composite material such as carbon fibre or Kevlar®, or replaceable billet aluminium or steel plates and/or bars. These methods are either very costly or are inadequate in practice.
Another method is to attach a material such as polycarbonate which although provides good protective properties, these properties are rendered obsolete on contact with petroleum, or long term UV exposure. Given spillage often occurs on re-fuelling especially in race scenarios, a product which is likely to fail on exposure to petroleum will not give the required level of comfort that damage to the bike and thus an oil spill will potentially occur after a crash.
GB2479405 Lewis Banks Ltd describes one solution to these problems, namely a polymeric and long glass fibre composition for use in injection molded protective articles including secondary engine covers and motorcycle secondary engine covers. The use of this composition in injection molded protective articles advantageously results in a protective article which is of significantly reduced cost compared with replacing the damaged part, i.e., an engine cover casing after a fall on a motorcycle. As the protective article can be produced at a significantly reduced cost, there is more benefit to the owner of an, e.g., motorcycle, to use a protective article, resulting in oil spills from cracked or worn primary, e.g., engine cover casings.
Furthermore, the composition also allows for absorption of forces which are generated on impact, because forces are absorbed by the composition the protective article does not shatter and break on impact, thus transmitting the forces directly to the primary eg engine cover casing and therefore the engine that it is supposed to be protecting.
The composition also allows for increased wear compared with the stock eg engine cover casings and compared with the prior art Carbon Fibre or Kevlar® secondary eg engine cover casings. This means that the protective article does not necessarily need to be replaced every time the protective article comes into contact with the ground in a crash. If the crash is only minor and not at high speed and not over a long distance, then there may only be a small amount of wear or scuffing on the protective article meaning it can be left in place without needing to be changed, whereas in the same crash with the stock or prior art articles a change would have been required.
However, because of the high performance and durability of the protective article sometimes it isn't replaced when it is in need of replacement, i.e., it is worn to such a degree that a final crash may not protect the engine as intended. This practice is not only false economy, but potentially reduces rider safety.